


Fascination With Feathered Appendages

by ElenaCee



Series: Devil's Trap [8]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angel Wings, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Family Fluff, Wing Grooming, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-17 18:01:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10599276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElenaCee/pseuds/ElenaCee
Summary: The family trial weekend. And wings!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Fluff. Really fluffy fluff. So fluffy is the fluff you'll be fluffed out by the end of it. No, seriously.
> 
> Warning for Chapter 2: It doesn't get any less fluffy. On the contrary. This may be the fluffiest fluff that ever fluffed.

Chloe drifted awake when she heard whispering next to her.

“Show me again, Lucifer.”

That was Trixie, trying to be very quiet. Curious what this was about, Chloe suppressed her first impulse to open her eyes and instead lay still, keeping her breathing even.

“Alright, but we mustn’t wake your mother.” Lucifer was much better at whispering than Trixie was, but Chloe could still understand what he was saying as he was lying right next to her.

“Okay.”

“So you must be really quiet, alright?”

“Okay.”

There was a pause during which Chloe imagined all sorts of things Lucifer might be showing her daughter - again? - and she wasn’t able to continue to play possum any longer.

Turning her head towards the pool of warmth in her bed next to her, she found herself looking at the back of Lucifer’s head (hair tousled, check), with Trixie on the bed snuggled up next to him, staring intently at his face.

Whatever her daughter saw made her slap one hand to her mouth and her eyes go wide, but, true to her promise, she tried to be as quiet as she could. The slight squeal that did get out could certainly be forgiven.

“Shh,” Lucifer said.

“No need, I’m awake,” Chloe said, touched by the scene.

“Aww, now look what you’ve done, Spawn,” Lucifer said, mock-sternly but with a definite undertone of amusement.

“Mommy!” Excitement was bursting from every cell of Trixie’s body. “Lucifer’s been showing me his Devil eyes! They’re so cool! Have you seen his Devil eyes, Mommy?”

“Yeah, I have, Monkey,” Chloe said. “And yeah, they’re very cool.”

Trixie grinned to rival the sun while Lucifer turned to Chloe, giving her his rare true smile. “Good morning.”

“Good morning.” She very much wanted to kiss that smile, but she was also aware of Trixie watching their every move.

“Kiss!” Trixie said, having picked up on the undercurrents regardless. “Kiss, kiss, kiss!”

Lucifer’s smile assumed its devilish guise, and Chloe realized that, once again, she’d have to be the only adult around.

She gave her daughter the Stern Look. “Didn’t we agree on little weasels staying out of Mommy’s room when Lucifer’s here?” She transferred the Look to Lucifer. “And didn’t we agree on no PDAs in front of Trixie?”

“You agreed, Chloe,” Lucifer said, trying to look dignified but stalling at roguish due to his bed hair. “I don’t recall agreeing on anything.”

Trixie nodded, copying Lucifer’s expression and managing to look slightly constipated as a result. “Me neither.”

Lucifer gave Trixie an approving look that the little weasel returned with a raised hand, palm out to Lucifer.

Right. Chloe intercepted the impending high-five by throwing herself across Lucifer and tackling Trixie into the mattress, then tickling her into delighted squeals. The ensuing pillow fight would hopefully nip any further thought of the Devil and the Spawn teaming up against her in the bud.

 

* * *

 

“Mommy,” Trixie said, peering at her phone, “why is the Internet so mean to Lucifer? Lucifer’s not evil. Being bad to bad people isn’t evil. Why is it his fault that bad people are bad?”

“Hmm,” Chloe said, her mind flashing warning signs about theological discourse and human misconception versus the Devil they had both come to know and love, and whom Trixie had apparently already adopted as her new dad. “Why don’t we ask him? Where is he, anyway?”

“He went for a walk,” Trixie said, swiping the display of her phone and making faces of varying degrees of disgust at what she was seeing. “Said he needed to stretch his wings. I think he meant legs.”

There was a pause. Chloe could practically see Trixie’s brain catch up with her mouth.

“Mommy! The Internet says that Lucifer is a Fallen Angel. Angels have wings. Does he have wings?”

“You should ask him that, Monkey.”

Trixie hopped up and down. “Does he? Does he?” When Chloe didn’t reply, she turned back to her phone. Chloe could see her opening the chat app.

Which was when the front door opened and the Devil in question walked in. Chloe smiled. Talk about speaking of.

“Lucifer!” Trixie yelled as if she hadn’t cuddled with him just a few hours ago, launching herself at him. “Did you stretch your wings? Can I see them? Can I?”

He threw Chloe an amused look. “Déjà vu.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. So she had gotten a bit excited about his wings. She refused to be embarrassed about that.

“Can I? Can I? Can I?” Trixie went on.

Lucifer looked down at where she was hugging his midriff. Chloe noticed that he’d forgone his usual suit jacket in favor of a black leather jacket. She approved. “Well, I don’t know if you can, Spawn,” he said, taking the question literally like he so often did. “Your mother can, but she’s special.”

“I’m special, too,” Trixie said, not quite pouting.

Chloe smiled at that.

To her surprise, Lucifer didn’t. “You may well be, child, considering your heritage,” he said earnestly. “Let’s find out, shall we?” He reached into an inside pocket of his jacket. “I’m going to give you something. I want you to hold it, look at it, and then give it back to me, alright?”

“Okay.”

“Lucifer… “Chloe began.

“Don’t worry, my love, I’m actually being a responsible Devil with this simple test. You know that I’d never harm your daughter, don’t you?”

She relaxed. “Yeah, I know that. Sorry.”

He gave her a smile, then withdrew something small and white from his pocket and handed it to Trixie.

“Oooh,” she cooed, cupping the thing in both her hands. “So soft. Warm! What is it?”

“It’s a down feather.”

Chloe craned her head. “One of yours?”

“Hmhm.” He watched Trixie smile and coo at the feather for a bit before looking back at Chloe. “Came out when I tried to groom my wings. Speaking of, I could use your help.”

That caught Trixie’s attention. “Oh, can I help, too?” She held the feather out to Lucifer. “Can I see your wings? Can I? Please?”

He took it from her, watching her closely, and when her excited expression didn’t change as she let go of the feather, he smiled. “Yes, Spawn. You’re special, too, and you can see them.”

“Oh, now? Now?”

“In a bit, Monkey,” Chloe felt obliged to interject. “At least let him take off his jacket first.”

Lucifer did so, putting it on the backrest of the couch next to him. “I want you to have this, Chloe,” he then said, holding the feather out to her. “If you keep it on your person, I can always find you. And you can use it to heal, yourself or others. But don’t ever let anyone else see it. It’s a piece of Divinity. Looking at it can drive humans insane.”

“An angelic GPS locator cum magic band-aid, huh? Neat.” She took it, carefully. It was so soft and light that she could barely feel it, except for the strange warmth it generated. Cupped in her palm and shielded from the light, it glowed faintly. Barely longer than her finger, the fluffy thing was almost round in diameter, completely unlike the strong, straight pinion feathers she had seen and touched yesterday. It seemed much too fragile to put in her pocket, or even between the pages of a notebook.

“Uhm,” she said, “how should I -”

“Thought of that,” Lucifer said, picking up his jacket again to take something silvery out of another inside pocket. “Put it inside of this.”

‘This’ was a long, cylindrical pendant on a thin silver chain. It somewhat reminded her of the necklace she had seen Amenadiel wear. “Thank you,” she said, awed. This, and the feather, were the most precious gifts she had ever received.

“It’s hollow. You can unscrew it and twirl the feather into it.” He made a rubbing motion with his fingers to demonstrate.

“Can I see your wings now, Lucifer?” Trixie interjected, clearly having decided that she’d waited long enough while the adults were talking.

Lucifer looked around the room while Chloe tried to slide his feather inside the pendant and kept one eye on the proceedings. “Yes,” he said to Trixie, “but you need to clear this table first, and the counter too, probably. And move the chairs to the wall a bit, except for that one. Put that over there. Well, go on.”

Trixie hopped to it so eagerly that Chloe realized her opportunity. “And you’ll clear your room in exchange for seeing his wings, okay?”

“Okay, Mommy,” Trixie said, busy carrying glasses into the kitchen area and not even bothering to negotiate.

“Huh,” Chloe said, putting the necklace around her neck. “That was easy.”

“Hmm.” Lucifer was eyeing her speculatively. “I wonder what I can get from you in return. If the wings really are such a valuable bargaining chip I may even keep them.”

“Shh,” Chloe shushed him with a glance towards where Trixie was busy. “Don’t mention any of that where she can hear you. She’ll have nightmares for weeks.”

He had the grace to look contrite. “You’re right. Sorry. Let’s see if I can make it up to you -”

She rolled her eyes.

“... by indulging your quaint fascination with feathered appendages. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Not what you’re thinking. Not in front of the spawn, Chloe.” Giving her an insolent grin, he moved into the center of the room, took off his shirt, and  _ whoosh _ .

Whatever reply Chloe had been formulating vanished from her mind at the sight of his wings. In the daylight, their glow wasn’t noticeable, but they still looked even more magnificent than they had yesterday, smoother, less… ruffled?

He pulled his wings in and turned, and when he presented his back to her, she realized what he had meant by needing help. The cover feathers between his shoulder blades, right where they grew out of his body, were sticking in all directions, with the fluffy down feathers underneath exposed. It was even more obvious considering the glaring difference to the rest of the coverts that were lying so smoothly.

“Ooohh,” Trixie breathed. “So pretty! Can I touch them? Can you fly?”

“And déjà vu the second,” Lucifer grinned. Sitting down backwards on the chair facing Chloe and Trixie, he positioned his wings so one stayed folded behind his back and the other extended towards them. “Go ahead.”

After her lesson yesterday, Chloe was much less reticent now. Stroking one hand firmly over the coverts on the back of the wing, she let herself feel the warmth and smoothness, the way the feathers quivered under her touch.

Trixie, meanwhile, carded her hand right into the plumage with the fearless confidence of a child, which made Lucifer hiss and snatch his wing away. “Not against the grain, Spawn,” he said tightly. “Never, ever against the grain. Not unless you know what you’re doing.”

“Sorry,” Trixie said, very softly, eyes huge. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Lucifer gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s alright, you didn’t hurt me. Here, let me show you how you do it.” He put his wing forward again, spreading the pinions. “You place your fingers like this - thumb and two fingers forming a triangle. You grab one of the long feathers at the base like this, and pull your hand down along the rachis - that’s the shaft in the middle. It makes the barbs lock together and the feather all smooth and even. See? Don’t worry about pulling it out, you can’t. Try it.”

Face set in concentration, Trixie did her best to imitate him, carefully grabbing a pinion and pulling her hand down it. “Like this?”

“Hmm. Very good, Spawn.” Chloe noticed that the pinions next to the one Trixie was holding twitched. In anticipation? she wondered.

Trixie smiled brightly, carefully taking hold of the next one.

“You have to do that with every single feather?” Chloe said, aghast. That was a lot of feathers.

Lucifer grinned. “And you thought I took long in the bathroom before.” He looked at her for a beat, then added, “I only have to do that if I’m serious about wanting to fly. They won’t fall out if I don’t groom them. These are not bird’s wings. They’re supernatural. Angels don’t molt, for one thing. Well. Unless we Fall.”

“Can you fly?” Trixie piped up, looking up from where she’d just finished smoothing out her third pinion.

“Of course I can fly. These are not just for show, you know.” He stretched out both wings and gave them a careful flap, sending scattered papers all over the room flying in the gust of wind and making Trixie’s drawings on the walls rustle and flutter.

Amused, Chloe thought that if Trixie’s eyes opened any wider, her eyeballs would pop out. “Cool!”

“Just not right now when I’m still so ruffled. The best I could manage right now would be a glide, not any actual lift.” He folded his wings behind his back again with a rustle of feathers.

“Well,” Chloe said, who had been eyeing that particularly ruffled spot on Lucifer’s back all the time, “it’s not like we’ve got anything better to do, right, Monkey?”

Trixie nodded vigorously, already reaching out towards the wing tip to continue where she’d left off.

“Really?” Lucifer said, giving Chloe a surprised look.

“Of course. Sounds relaxing.”

“Oh, it is. I just didn’t think you’d want to. It’s not like humans groom each other.” He looked at her, saw her expression, and shrugged. “Well, if you’re sure.” He leaned his elbows on the backrest of the chair, getting comfortable.

“We do give one another back rubs,” Chloe said, stepping up behind him and putting her hands onto the feathers close to his spine.

In response to the touch, Lucifer arched his back with a soft sigh, pulling his shoulder forward, and his wings spread out to both sides of him, quivering, just like Chloe had imagined they would.

Trixie yelped in surprise as she was knocked over when the wing she had been grooming extended suddenly.

“Sorry,” Lucifer said indistinctly. “Reflex.” He had let his forehead sink down onto his arms, wings still spread.

The position exposed the area between his wings, and Chloe found she now had much better access. Smiling, she carefully carded her hands through the warm feathers, aligning them, then smoothing out each individual feather the way he’d shown them both. It felt immensely satisfying to watch the ruffled white things begin to form a smooth surface.

Oh yes, she could do this all day, every day.

Lucifer made a humming noise, head still resting on his forearms, completely relaxed.

“Feels good?” Chloe had to ask. He’d teased her often enough, after all.

“Heavenly,” Lucifer said softly. “Last time I experienced anything like this was way back when I was still in the Silver City.” He turned his head to the side to look at Chloe over the shoulder of one wing. “You can’t possibly know what this means to me.”

“No, but I can imagine,” Chloe said, doing just that as she continued her ministrations. All the angels together in Heaven, grooming one another, giving one another affection like this, one happy family. And then the Fall, Lucifer being cast out, injured, burned. His wings would have been a hindrance in Hell, Chloe realized. He couldn’t use them to fly if he was alone with no one to help him groom them, if they even could recover from the burns. All they would have been good for was being used by his father to control him.

No wonder cutting them off was the first thing he did once he had left Hell.

And now he had them back, along with a new family to help him groom them, after so very long. “I can imagine,” Chloe repeated.

Maybe, if she showed him that his wings didn’t need to be instruments of servitude, but instead could be a means for helping him feel good, maybe she could make him consider keeping them.

She began to move her roving hands out towards the tip of the other wing, smoothing each single covert, picking up speed as her fingers learned the movements, enjoying the sounds Lucifer made and the feel of the feathers beneath her hands. Calming. Relaxing. Almost soporific.

“And when we’re done, will you go flying?” Trixie asked, busy with the other wing, her little hands now moving like she’d been grooming angels all her life.

Lucifer made another humming sound. Chloe wondered whether he was purring or humming to himself. “Maybe,” he finally said without raising his head, sounding more mellow than she’d ever heard him. “Have to go to Lux for that, though. Too many humans around here.”

“Oh, Mommy, can we go? We could make it a sleepover.”

And her little monkey would certainly like that, just as much as Lucifer might not. Then again, this was about finding out whether this whole family thing could work for all of them, so why not stress-test a bit? If it turned out that Lucifer couldn’t handle Trixie for longer than a few hours at a time, better to find out now, right?

“What do you think, my fearsome Prince of Darkness?” she asked the Devil currently slumped half asleep on the chair before her, presenting her his wings and bowed nape.

He raised his head from his forearms, regarding her with half-lidded eyes. He looked positively debauched, Chloe thought, as if he’d just had the best sex of his life. “It seems I owe you two,” he said, “so why not.”

Chloe opened her mouth, intending to explain about wanting to do things because you want to do them rather than out of obligation, but shut it again, the words unsaid. Lucifer understood about deals and favors, but doing things out of love was still an alien concept for him, so she’d better quit while she was ahead.

There would hopefully be time enough to teach him.


	2. Chapter 2

“Alright, house rules,” Chloe announced as soon as Trixie had run out of the elevator to look around the penthouse like an excited mouse trying to see everything at once. “Trix! House rules!”

The girl stopped in her tracks and turned back, trying to look attentive.

Chloe put down her duffle bag and faced her daughter. “First rule: This place has no doors. That doesn’t mean that you can just barge into Lucifer’s bedroom, though. You wait outside and ask if you can come in, okay?”

“Why aren’t there any doors in here, Lucifer?” Trixie promptly wanted to know.

“I hate doors. Remind me of Hell,” Lucifer replied from his place at the bar where he was pouring himself a drink, his wings once again hidden from sight.

“But that way everyone can see you doing naked stuff,” came the inevitable response.

“I don’t care about people seeing me, Spawn. It’s your mother who’s so boringly stuck up about these things.”

Chloe narrowed her eyes and gave him her best glare.

He raised his hands. “With good reason, I’m sure. Obscure, but no doubt very good.” He returned her glare with his best grin.

Trixie giggled.

Which, Chloe surprised herself thinking, was infinitely preferable to her reaction whenever she and Dan had been squabbling, even before Lucifer appeared on the scene.

“Right,” she resumed, throwing another glare at the Devil and his whisky glass. “Number two: No drinking anything in here unless I okay it. Me, not Lucifer. Got that, Monkey?”

“Yes, Mom.” She made a face. “I don’t like grown-up drinks, anyway.”

Chloe nodded, suppressing the urge to stick out her tongue at Lucifer. He’d only turn it into a sexual joke. She looked around the penthouse. What else? Oh yeah. “Number three: No jumping into the pool. You can go in if Lucifer says it’s okay. But no jumping.”

Trixie nodded, fidgeting.

“Number four: Ask Lucifer before you touch any of his books, okay? They look really old, and each single one is probably more valuable than all of our books combined.”

“Okay.” She hopped up and down. “I promise. Can Lucifer go flying now?”

“You’ll have to ask him, and I’m not finished yet,” Chloe said. “Number five: No touching the piano unless Lucifer says it’s okay.”

“Oh, she can touch the piano anytime,” Lucifer said, tossing back his drink. “Who knows, maybe she can play better than you, Chloe.”

She gave her glare another go. “Funny.”

“Does that mean I can play it whenever I want?” Trixie clarified. “Even in the middle of the night?”

“Don’t you dare,” Chloe said, while Lucifer said, “Of course.”

Trixie looked from one to the other.

Chloe turned to the Devil. “Okay, here’s another rule: Whenever we disagree on anything regarding Trixie, my rule goes. She’s a human child, I’m a human mother, I’m inherently more qualified to make the rules regarding her than you are. Okay?”

“Certainly,” Lucifer said. “Subject to re-negotiation once I’ve picked up the basics of human spawn rearing.”

That made Chloe ridiculously happy. He’d just said that he was willing to learn. “Agreed,” she said, feeling herself blush with the force of her love for him hitting her like a punch to the gut.

Trixie giggled. “See? I knew being with him would make you blush.”

“I’m not blushing,” Chloe said, despite the evidence of her burning cheeks.

“You so are,” Trixie said. “I like it. It makes you pretty.”

“She’s right, you know,” Lucifer butted in. “On both counts.”

Chloe smiled at him, wishing they were alone so she could show him just how much she liked getting complimented like that.

“Lucifer!” Trixie said, reminding everyone why they had come here in the first place. “Please go flying! I want to see you fly!”

He pushed himself away from the bar. “In medias res, eh? Why not. If you truly desire it, I shall indulge you, child.”

“I do desire it,” Trixie intoned. “Besides, I helped you make your wings all smooth and pretty. I get to ask a favor in return.”

He grinned. “That you do, most certainly.” He made an inviting gesture towards the balcony. “Shall we, then?”

They filed outside where dusk was just falling. Chloe realized that they’d already spent a whole day together, and no one had lost their temper, no one had gotten on anyone’s nerves. On the contrary; this had been one of the most pleasant, harmonic days in her recent memory. She thought that things were developing really nicely.

And were about to get better. Lucifer summoned his wings - she’d have to ask him where he kept them when they weren’t visible - stretched them up and to the sides experimentally, and pulled them forward to run his hands over the coverts of each one, checking their alignment. Then he flapped his wings a few times while holding onto the balcony railing, his feet leaving the ground briefly as the lift force pulled him up.

Instinctively, Chloe grabbed Trixie, worried that the little girl might be blown off the balcony with the turbulence Lucifer was creating.

“Seems good to go,” Lucifer said. “I’ll stay close to the building, but don’t worry if you can’t see me. I may have to leave this plane of existence briefly to hide from human sight.”

“Where will you be going?” Trixie asked, amazed.

“To the Infernal plane. Just for a few seconds at a time.” He flapped his wings once. “Now, let’s see. What’s that saying? Geronimo!” With another flap, he threw himself over the railing, like a swimmer diving in headfirst.

His wings caught immediately, and he banked and soared in a tight circle around the building, barely losing height. “Nice thermals,” he shouted as he passed them, just a few yards away from the railing, the pinion feathers of one wing briefly brushing the metal.

Trixie was hopping up and down, clapping her hands in excitement, and Chloe found her cheeks beginning to hurt from how widely she was smiling.

Lucifer was flying. The Devil had his wings back. And he was beautiful.

The exhilaration of the moment seemed to affect him, too, because he stopped simply soaring and instead flapped his wings rapidly, ascending above the building and continuing to climb.

They craned their necks trying to keep him in sight, and soon, he approached from high above, wings drawn in, diving at speed past their level and down, down.

Trixie shrieked. “Is he crashing?”

“I don’t think so,” Chloe said reassuringly.  _ At least I hope not. And if he does, I hope he’s far enough away from me to be immortal when he hits the ground. _

But they needn’t have worried, because the white wings could soon be seen spreading and flapping down below, still way above street level, then steadying as Lucifer circled back up in the thermals.

As he climbed, Chloe noticed him seemingly wink out of existence a few times. She wondered how that worked. A human happened to look up, and this angelic cloaking somehow got engaged automatically? Or was it something Lucifer did consciously? Could he feel human eyes on him and respond so quickly that they never really saw him?

What was the true extent of his powers now? She remembered him saying that losing his wings had depowered him. Now that he had them back, what could he really do?

“Mommy,” Trixie said, interrupting her thoughts, “can I go flying with him? I’m sure he could carry me. Please?”

Chloe wanted to do that herself, had wanted to since she’d first set eyes on his wings. So, she couldn’t very well say no to Trixie. “We’ll ask him, okay, honey?”

“YES!” Trixie yelled, doing a fistpump, and Chloe knelt down next to her to give her little monkey an impulsive hug.

This, she realized, was happiness. Been too damned long since she’d felt it.

With a gust of wind and a flurry of feathers, Lucifer landed on the balcony next to them, windswept and exuberant. “Well!” he said, folding his wings behind him. “Someone’s looking happy. Did you enjoy the show, ladies?”

“Oh yes!” Trixie said, throwing herself at him to hug him, while Chloe simply transferred her smile from her daughter to her Devil.

To her surprise, Lucifer picked Trixie up in his arms and held her close, looking into her eyes. “Do you trust me, Beatrice Decker?”

Trixie nodded wordlessly, clearly hoping that something monumental was about to happen but afraid to ask in case she was wrong.

Lucifer looked at Chloe. “Do you trust me with your daughter’s life, Chloe?”

With an effort, she wiped the smile off her face and narrowed her eyes at him. “If you drop her, I’ll kill you.”

“I believe you,” he replied. “I won’t drop her. I promise.” He directed his gaze at Trixie. “If you squeal in my ear, the flight is over. Deal?”

“Deal,” she said. “How about whooping?”

“Only if I’m doing it, too.”

“Deal.”

And off they went over the railing. Chloe stepped up to it to keep them in sight.

Again, Lucifer stayed close to the building and at the approximate height of his balcony, slowly soaring in circles with his wings extended and only now and then giving them a lazy flap to hold his altitude. They were both silent, Trixie holding perfectly still in Lucifer’s arms, looking down at the ground so far below, up at Lucifer’s face, at his wings, back down to the ground, awestruck.

Chloe wondered what her little monkey was thinking. Lucifer had said she was special. Being taken for a flight like that would certainly change her life forever. Beatrice Decker, friends with a demon, an angel, and the Devil himself, had now lost her virginity, in a way. She could never go back to being an ordinary, clueless human. What would become of her now?

Whatever it was going to be, Chloe would be by her side every step of the way. And, if she had anything to say about it, so would Lucifer.

“Can you do a dive?” she heard Trixie ask as they were circling near where Chloe was standing, Lucifer soaring so slowly that he was practically stationary, primaries rippling and moving as he steered his flight.

“A short one. But no squealing.”

“I promise.”

He was hovering right next to the balcony and Chloe when he pulled in his wings, abruptly losing height, diving headfirst for a few yards, then spreading his wings and banking sharply into a tight circle, flapping to regain the lost altitude.

“So cool!” Chloe could hear Trixie say as they approached. “This is so cool. Way better than chocolate cake or Magic Mountain.”

“High praise,” Lucifer replied. He was breathing more deeply than normal. “Had enough?”

“Never.”

“I realized it was a stupid question as soon as I asked it,” Lucifer said, amused. “Well, I think it’s enough for now. Prepare for landing and all that.” He soared over the railing, swooping upright and flapping his wings with their primaries fanned out in a perfect landing.

Trixie slid out of his arms and to the ground, and immediately turned around to hug him. “Thank you, Lucifer. That was awesome!”

“It was, wasn’t it?” Lucifer said, looking gleefully exuberant, and, in Chloe’s considered opinion, sexily windswept. Which was emphasized by the glow of his skin and the way his recent exertion had deepened his breathing. He turned to her, detaching Trixie from him. “So, how about it, Chloe? Care to go flying with the Devil?”

_ I’d go anywhere, do anything, with the Devil _ , she thought. Aloud she said, “You sure? I weigh a bit more than Trixie.”

“You are only slightly heavier than a feather, my love.” He stepped up to her and lifted her into his arms bridal-style, and effortlessly.

She slung one arm around his neck, the shoulders of his wings brushing her briefly as he spread them.

“Ready?” he asked.

She took a deep breath. “Ready.”

He flapped his wings; she could feel the muscles in his back and chest bunch up and move with it. And then she felt him leave the ground, gaining altitude with each flap of his wings as he flew over the railing. The streets and buildings below suddenly were right underneath her with nothing to prevent her falling to her death except the Devil’s supernatural strength.

“Relax, Chloe,” he said, his mouth close to her ear. “I’ve got you.”

She realized that her arm was keeping his neck in a stranglehold, and she tried to relax, focusing on the warmth of his arms around her back and under her knees. She was secure in his hold, she would not fall.

Meanwhile, the wind made a soft susurrus as it blew through the feathers of Lucifer’s wings; he soared and flapped them slowly, again circling the Lux building. She saw Trixie waving at them, saw the tiny cars way down below, saw the white feathers move and spread and pull in again close to her, saw Lucifer’s dark eyes look at her reassuringly.

Slowly, she relaxed.

“Okay?” he asked her.

“Yeah,” she said. “Yeah. It’s just…”

“A lot, I know. Don’t worry, we can stop anytime.” He sounded a little out of breath.

Chloe remembered that he literally had not done this in millennia, and then probably not with a passenger.

She was just about to ask him whether he’d rather stop when the world suddenly turned blue.

Everything was still in its place. There was Lux, with Trixie craning her neck looking for them. There were the hills, the coast, all the landmark buildings. And yet, the sky and the sun and the very atmosphere were different.

And there was silence. All the city sounds had vanished.

“Welcome to the Infernal plane,” Lucifer said.

“What’s going on?”

“Look over there.” He nodded at something to the right and down.

She looked. At first, she didn’t see anything, but then she spotted the tiny drone that was flying in their direction, as silent as everything else.

“Almost missed it,” he said. “It may have gotten footage of me - us.” He began flying towards it.

“These things have cameras, but they don’t record,” Chloe said, thinking fast. “The recording will be in the remote control device.”

“Damn. I’ll have to destroy that, then. This will make things a bit more interesting, though.” He grinned at her. “Are you up for a little hunt?”

She grinned back. “Go for it, Satan.”

Suddenly, the silent world tilted on its axis, and the blue-tinted ground approached really, really fast. Chloe was proud of herself for keeping from squealing.

Lucifer caught the dive about twenty yards above the roofs of most buildings and began to fly in fast, large circles, spreading his wings and only flapping them to hold his altitude.

Flying in this soundless blue world was even stranger than flying in the normal one, Chloe found, and no less exhilarating. She was beginning to move with it, shifting her weight when Lucifer banked. She wished she could spread her arms and stretch out her legs in the same position Lucifer’s body was in. Maybe a harness of some sort...

It didn’t take long to identify the guy with the remote control; he was on the roof of a nearby building, looking up in the direction of Lux and literally scratching his head. It was obvious that he couldn’t see them.

It was equally obvious that he had seen something.

“What are you gonna do?” Chloe asked Lucifer as it began to look like he was going in for landing.

“Sneak up to him and destroy the thing with a tiny bit of hellfire,” the Devil said, grinning devilishly.

“That would make it too obvious,” Chloe objected. “He just caught a winged human on film. If you do anything supernatural, he’ll never stop trying to find out what really happened.”

“Unless I scare him enough to never try again,” he said, still grinning.

“Lucifer, it’s not the guy’s fault that he saw something he shouldn’t have seen. You can’t punish him for it.”

He sighed. “You’re right.” They were still circling above the roof of the building. “Bloody humans and their gadgets spoiling my fun.”

“I have an idea,” Chloe said, ignoring his grumbling with the ease of practice. “Put me down on the roof.”

“You’ll leave the Infernal plane as soon as I let go of you.”

“That’s what I’m counting on.”

“Right.”

He swooped down, pulled himself upright and flapped to a landing, putting Chloe on her feet as soon as his own feet had touched the ground.

Chloe caught herself, actually needing a second to get used to being back on terra firma, and walked towards remote-control guy. The blue world immediately became noisy again, resuming its familiar colorful spectrum. “LAPD,” she shouted, flashing her badge. “Recall your drone and hand me the control. I’m confiscating it.”

The guy turned, startled at her sudden appearance. “What? Why?”

“It may contain footage relevant to a case I’m investigating. You’ll get it back intact, of course.”

“I… can’t,” the guy said. “I just got the most amazing recording -”

Dammit. “The case is time-sensitive,” Chloe improvised. “I need the device now.”

“But -”

“Now!”

She must have learned something from Lucifer about intimidation, because not five minutes later, she had the control, while the guy was looking doubtfully at a receipt in his hand. Walking away, she spotted Lucifer standing near the edge of the roof, wingless, just putting out a cigarette underneath his heel.

She waved the control at him. “Let’s go erase whatever’s on this thing,” she said, trying to fit it into her jacket.

Lucifer peered at remote-control guy, then grinned at her. “He’s looking over here. Let’s vanish.”

“What?”

He took her hand. The world turned silent and blue, and his wings appeared. Chloe realized that this was where he must be keeping them when they weren’t visible. He held out his arms. “If you’ll assume the position, my love.”

They flew off the roof just as remote-control guy came running up, searching for them.

“Let’s get back to Trixie,” Chloe said, holding on. “She’ll wonder what happened to us.”

 

* * *

 

“I know we should erase it,” Chloe said half an hour later as they were watching back what the drone had recorded, “but….”

It was an amazingly clear recording, depicting both Lucifer’s and Chloe’s faces, her expression of delight as she was looking down, the workings of Lucifer’s wings, even the way the wind tousled both their hair.

“It’s your maiden flight, Chloe,” Lucifer said. “Would be a pity to destroy it.”

She elbowed him gently. “Don’t tempt me, Lucifer.”

“Can’t help it,” he purred. “You don’t really want to erase this, do you. It’s an historical document. The first flight of a human in the arms of a Fallen Angel in history, excepting Beatrice, of course.”

“It’s a security risk for all Celestials.”

“Aw, come on. You’re sounding like Amenadiel. Nobody will believe it’s real, you know. They never do. We could upload it to Youtube, and all they’d say would be they’d seen better effects in video games.”

Chloe narrowed her eyes at him. “Then why were you so hell-bent on destroying it?”

He grinned. “Mostly because I love a good hunt. Honestly, my first impulse was to chase the drone and destroy that.”

She looked at him, shaking her head. The Devil was such a big kitten sometimes.

Trixie insinuated herself between them at that point to look at the display of Lucifer’s laptop. “Oooh,” she said when she realized what she was looking at.

“Your mother wants to erase that beautiful video permanently and forever,” Lucifer said, recruiting his little minion.

Immediately, Trixie directed her puppy dog eyes at Chloe. “No, Mommy! You can’t!”

Chloe grimaced.

“It would be such a shame,” Lucifer added, joining the assault with his own version of the puppy dog eyes.

Chloe grimaced harder.

“Come on, Chloe,” Lucifer upped his game as well as the impact of his big, dark eyes. “We can keep it on an encrypted USB stick, which Miss Lopez tells me is an adequate measure of protection. No one except us will ever see it.”

“Please, Mommy,” Trixie pitched in. “I want to watch this whenever I’m feeling sad.”

Outnumbered and outgunned, Chloe admitted defeat. “Fine. Okay. You win.” She shook her head at herself while, next to her, the Devil and her daughter high-fived.

 

* * *

 

Later that evening, they lay piled up on Lucifer’s couch, Trixie fast asleep snuggled up against his side, Chloe on his other side with her head on his chest, his wings loosely draped over all three of them.

“Still think this is all your Father’s doing?” Chloe said softly, enjoying his warmth and the feeling of soft angelic feathers covering her.

He didn’t reply immediately. “You know,” he finally said, “I don’t care anymore. He did create you, and I need to be grateful for that, I suppose. But… maybe all this does mean He’s forgiven me. It’s almost inconceivable, but….” He gestured at them, encompassing his wings, his softly glowing grace, Chloe in his arms. “What else could it mean?”

She reared up to kiss him. “I’m sure that’s just what it means.”

“Unless…” He held her closer to him, stroking her shoulder with his thumb. “Unless He intends to snatch it all away again tomorrow. I certainly don’t put it past Him.” He turned his head to kiss her temple. “He did sent me that bloody vision.”

“Don’t,” Chloe said. “Don’t ruin the present with fear of the future. It’s a very human failing. You’re better than that.”

“Isn’t the whole point of all this to teach me how to be human?”

“Maybe, but you’re free to pick the good parts and ignore the rest.”

He smiled. “Fascinating. So young and yet so wise.”

“Hmhm. And very grateful for today, too. Thank you, Lucifer.”

He gifted her with his genuine smile. “Thank you, Chloe.” He looked up. “And thank You, Dad. For the moment.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm aware that there may be drones that do record the footage. Work with me here. :-)
> 
> Whew, sorry for all the fluff. And thanks for all your lovely comments and kudos! Muchly appreciated. <3


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